God Will Find Me When I Praise Him[!]

Here is one of the comments to Veith's post. It is by "Theresak" whose blog can be reached here.

You've brought up the one good thing about CCM and praise songs: they are usually good at making people stop and think about what words just came out of their mouths. Unfortunately, they are also good at misleading the uncatechized soul.

My favorite bad song? That's easy! It's the song that provided me with the straw that broke the back of my evangelical camel:When I Praise by FFH

Here's the lyrics:

Lookin' for love and I lost my way
Another long night has turned to day
Nobody likes to feel this way
So I draw close to you
It's what I'm supposed to do

Lookin' for love and I close my eyes
I run to you with no disguise
You hold me close and say "it's fine"
You take me in your arms
And you soothe this heart of mine

And I throw my hands up in the air
Here's my heart 'cause I don't care-
What they say about me, I gotta praise
I throw my hands up in the air
'Cause I know that You will find me there
Find me when I praise

Lookin' for love and I hide my face(Lookin' for love and I hide my face)
What about the scars and disgrace(Should I hide my disgrace)
But You meet me there in spite of my shame
Your blood covers it all
And You carry me away

The "ear worm" for me was the line that says God will find me when I praise Him. It played in my head over and over, but this stupid voice in my head (my junior high catechized self, I suppose) kept saying, "That makes no sense. God can only find you if you praise Him?" I think "When I Praise" is a perfect illustration of the lie of evangelicalism: that we affect our own salvation. There are many other evangelical anthems, but this one is a great symbol for me.